Music and politics have long been intertwined and political patronage can sometimes lead artists to self-censor. On the other hand, some musicians are just more interested in entertainment than politics.
From a dancer moving against a wash of static, to a show that takes the audience hostage, Adelaide’s OzAsia Festival celebrates both high art and high energy performances.
Sometimes album sleeves reveal little about the music. Instead they illuminate the society it came from, exposing unexpected stories of people, art forms and struggles.
Ghana’s Chale Wote festival’s main aim is to provide an alternative platform for the arts. It uses street arts to break creative boundaries and cultivate a wider audience for the arts in West Africa.
A trombonist is forced to play the cymbals, while a pair of marching girls dance out his frustrations. A full brass band slips from classical, to jazz, to folk and cabaret. En Avant, Marche! is a strange show, but worth your time.
The MTV music video awards will be held on Sunday, putting this under-rated genre in the spotlight. Videos are inseparable from music in the digital age and the best examples deserve to be taken seriously as works of art.
The golden days of the 1960s protest song may be past, but music is still used across the world as a vehicle to voice political views. More than a sideshow, it can be a form of mobilisation and an expression of ‘soft power’.
Female popular musicians die younger – and from more unnatural causes like suicide, homicide and accidents – than women in the general population. What’s going wrong?
Australian television turns 60 this year, so we’re celebrating classic TV tunes of the fifties and sixties – those theme songs and jingles you can’t get out of your head.
Unexpected calls to prayer from mosques in Turkey caught many off guard on the night of the attempted coup. An ethnomusicologist explains the political and social power of sound.